On 2005-02-16, ant penned:
"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message
http://health.allrefer.com/health/ch...es-images.html

that article is incredibly simplistic.

Well, I was just looking for something that mentioned the "pain when sitting"
symptom. I have found more detailed articles in the past, but we've both
talked to doctors, so we probably have heard it all before.

Mine hurts going up or down stairs, or when clicking into my skis.
However, now I'm tape-free because skiing with my kneecap in the right
spot (from taping) eliminates the problem. I have some funny
excersises to build the right muscle but they are annoying to do. They
involve co-contracting the weak muscle. Oddly, when I'm not skiing,
the problem becomes worse and going up or down stairs is very
unpleasant. I don't tape when not skiing, which is part of the
problem.

I guess I'm lucky in that mine don't hurt when *doing* things anymore; just
when I'm sitting in place too long. I guess it's a not-so-subtle message to
get off my butt.

What exercises have you been given? My PT said that stretching was at least
as important as exercising (so of course I've been doing neither). In
addition to having weak(er) inner quad muscles, my outer muscle and tendon is
extremely tight, so much so that when I lie down with my legs danging off the
bed, my knees don't bend much at all. Hrm, I haven't actually tried that in a
while; I should see where I am.

So one exercise is actually to just lie down like that and try to hold my knee
bent as far as I can for at least 30s. Another is to stand on one foot on a
stair step and bend the knee I'm standing on until my other leg touches the
next level, I think twenty times or so. Another is simply to do 10 or 20
wall-sits, staying in position for a count of 5, but not bending my knees too
far to see my toes. There were a few more that I'd need to look up to
remember; some of the stretches were pretty hard to do. There was one that
simply required an elastic band to be tied around an object and my upper calf;
I had to stretch it by pushing my heel to the ground. The tough part was
keeping my hips out of the action.

The ones I remember, though, I really should be doing more often. They're not
that hard.

--
monique
Longmont, CO